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Fort Oberstyre
Fort Oberstyre was fomerly a small Imperial fortified castle created during the time of the great Vampire Wars in the year 2010 IC. When Vlad von Carstein was defeated at the Siege of Altdorf in 2051 IC, the Elector Count of Stirland ordered the building of a castle to monitor and safeguard the western roads that lead into Sylvania. It took twenty-three years to build Fort Oberstyre, but it was worth it, for the castle became the very pinnacle of military architecture in the impoverished region it occupies. The architects of the castle made the outer walls of the castle thick enough to ensure it could withstand rocks as well as cannonballs, and with an insurmountable moat that blocks all passages into the castle without the use of the drawbridge. It could accommodate a garrison of three thousand men, and a score of gun batteries guarded each crucial point. But infighting during this time emptied the coffers of Stirland, and in 2088 IC, the garrison numbered only seven hundred strong, with several of its cannon batteries having been reshipped to a different city, and parts of the outer walls already in disrepair. When Konrad von Carstein attacked in 2094 IC, Fort Oberstyre held on for no more than two hours. When the siege commenced, Konrad leaped over the moat and climbed the gatehouse in order to open the drawbridge for his army of Ghosts and Skeletal Warriors to finally breach the castles defences. Within moments, the castle fell and its inhabitants once more rose and aided Konrad in his unholy crusade against the Imperials. After the destruction of Konrad at the Battle of the Black Moor however, Fort Oberstyre was renovated and the Count of Stirland installed a fresh garrison of troops despite the huge sums of wealth it removed from the coffers of his treasury. As if to ridicule these efforts, Mannfred von Carstein took the fortress in one night several centuries later. At sunset before the attack, the vampire invoked the terrifying spell that called upon spectral spirits to rise and claim the lives of the garrisoning troops, with those few survivors having fled or surrendered before the first ray of sunshine had shone the next day. Since then, Fort Oberstyre has had several attempts to be recaptured and returned to Imperial rule, but the Priests of Morr were powerless to exorcise the spirits who rule the scene, and every now and again the spirits would return and attack those that defile their sleep. Entire garrisons would have thrown themselves from the ramparts of the castle, rather than spend another night of horror in its haunted rooms, and ever since then, the location remains a serious risk for those weary travelers looking to seek shelter after a thunderous storm. Fort Oberstyre once had four complete cannon batteries, mounted upon its walls at great expense by the Elector Count of Stirland. Most of these cannons stand silent at their posts, as even the most determined engineer will think twice about salvage operations when he sees the murderous spectres that flirt and moan through the castle's wall. Yet one cannon serves the empire to this day, and that cannon is the Hammer of the Witches. In the book Sigmar's Blood, Volkmar the Grim finally lifts the curse set upon Fort Oberstyre by ordering Kaslain to smash the meter thick Sylvanian oak of the gate which gets blasted into splinters. Once inside Fort Oberstyre, a Grand Exorcism was undertaken with the ghosts that Mannfred had bound to the fortress shrieked and screamed until the intruders began to doubt their sanity. Yet Volkmar's self-belief was infectious. The grizzled old priest strode through the fortress' passageways and corridors like a conquering king. The sheer intensity of his faith burned the writhing shadows from every corner, and blows from his blessed warhammer banished those spirits foolish enough to emerge from the dripping walls. The tattered zealots that accompanied Volkmar were as mere candles next to Volkmar's blazing bonfire of belief, but they had faith enough. They scoured broods of creeping degenerates from Oberstyre's cellars, their religious fervor and devotion driving them to fight as hard in the pitch-black vaults as in the light of day. By the time morning arrived, not a single evil soul dwelt within the fortress walls. Oberstyre's centuries-old curse had finally been lifted. Source *''Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts'' (8th Edition) pg 13 * : Sigmar's Blood ** : pg. 12 ** : pg. 22 es:Fuerte Oberstyre Category:Imperial Forts Category:Sylvania Category:Vampire Counts Category:F Category:O